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AEW topped a million for Punk vs. Moxley, which will be touted as a huge success - even if it took their biggest possible match to get there. But having anticipated a PPV level war, and getting a 2 minute squash instead, isn't there a chance many will feel so burned by the booking they don't tune in again? Many compared it to Hogan-Goldberg when it was announced but, in execution, it felt more like Hogan-Nash.
You are not the first person to mention the infamous Finger Poke Of Doom to me. In fact, there have been more than 100 people that have made that comparison to me. That was my reaction as well. Is there a chance it will turn fans off to AEW? Sure, Punk brought fans to the product when he joined them last year. It's conceivable that they will not like what they saw on Dynamite (and I don't blame them). As we saw in the ratings, over 200,000 people turned the show off after the match. That is not good, not at all. All I can say is that Tony Khan had better have a really good follow up angle planned. Turning Punk heel would be stupid, like when WWE turned Becky Lynch. If they will do a rematch at the PPV, I don't know how that could happen. If one kick killed Punk on Wednesday, to the point where he couldn’t even walk or fight back, there's no way he should be cleared to wrestle and no way he should "be allowed" to do so since it decimated him so badly. No sane promoter would book a rematch that quickly. If his foot gets miraculously better, then Punk looks bad for getting squashed. This week's Dynamite will be interesting, for sure.
Everyone talked about how CM Punk squash loss was so shocking. Would you agree that it was even more shocking that Mox didn't bleed all over the place?
Had the match gone more than a few minutes, I would have been. But given Tony Khan gave all of the offense to Mox, he really didn't have a reason to slice himself open.
Is Tony Khan a hypocrite or what? He has his lawyer send a letter to WWE about tampering with talent but Jeff Hardy has stated publicly that he was talking to AEW while still under contract to WWE.
I guess Tony could say that Jeff said it and he hadn’t talked to him at the time but that seems a bit far fetched to me. Jeff did say publicly that when his non-compete expired, he was going to AEW so it does seem a little hypocritical here. If Tony could do a “hey how are” text to Jeff, WWE staffers can do the same thing to AEW guys. It just shows me how on edge Tony is now that HHH is in charge of WWE. The Game has chanced, pun intended.
I saw that The Acclaimed have Micro Brawlers now. If Marko Stunt were still with AEW, would they be bigger than he is?
You popped me!
For the last little while, when you answer Q & As, I can't recall you having anything good at all to say about AEW. I get that you don't like the constant blood (and it's getting old for me, too), and you're down on Tony Khan's booking right now. On that note, I think there's still a lot of good stuff happening in the company - solid matches, an interesting trios tournament, etc. Is there anything you like about AEW right now, and if so, what is it?
As you know as an Elite member, I discussed this in-depth on the show with Mike Johnson last Wednesday. To summarize, I like a lot of the wrestlers in AEW and think that they work hard and I respect that. But to me, I have seen every kind of match that there is for well over 40 years now. I get that to a 20 year old, it’s all new and fresh to them so I see why they love it. But me? I want good storylines to go with the wrestling or it’s just wrestling for the sake of having matches. For the last four months or so, Tony Khan’s booking has been really bad in my opinion (and hit a low point with the Punk-Mox match). That makes the shows a drag to watch for me, much like Raw and Smackdown were under Vince McMahon’s terrible booking. Add in the ridiculous amount of blood that Tony loves to foist on us and it makes AEW a tough program to watch for me. Sure, there are solid matches but a lot of them lack any kind of logic and I can’t turn my brain off when I watch any kind of show. For example, if CM Punk comes back this week and says he wants a rematch at the PPV, what do I know in the storylines? Well, he came back too early. One kick put him down to where he couldn’t fight. The foot is hurt again and clearly can’t allow him to fight. Why would I believe it would be good enough to hold his weight, let alone fight, in less than two weeks? See, people who don’t care about logic won’t be bothered by that, but I will be. And let’s say Punk beats Mox on one foot. That means Mox is a chump and only won because Punk hurt himself. It makes Mox look like a puss in boots. And knowing Tony, MJF will return and attack Punk. You remember, the MJF who the last time I saw wrestle got beaten to a pulp by Wardlow. I can’t turn my brain off so this kind of stuff kills my enjoyment of the show. I know some people say “It’s all a work so it doesn’t matter” but to me it does. Tony’s booking is like watch a movie that is all action and no story.
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